To be clear, the 'Welwand' (we're not even sure that this was an official name) was a similar, purely experimental (we think!) concept but a different weapon entirely to the Sleeve Gun (Mk. I or II). You can see a 'Welwand' illustrated in Keith Melton's 'The Ultimate Spy Book'. It's slimmer, lighter, and suspended with an elastic shoulder strap. Over time many (including me before researching this video!) confused/conflated the two.
Hi Jonathan! First of all, thank you so much for your videos (these and the Gamespot ones too!) they are incredibly interesting and the way you explain things is really pleasant to listen to. I just wanted to ask whether the reversed thread on the breach was done for a specific, mechanical reason here, or is it a question of threads not being standardised at the time? i.e. "righty tighty, lefty loosy"...as it were :) Thanks!
@@pawelkaras7231 Thank you! 'lefty loosy' definitely was standardised by then, this opposite thread cocking piece is just so that you don't accidentally unscrew the breech when trying to cock the gun. I suppose it was more logical to make the breech thread 'righty' as that's how bolt actions work, and then the cocking piece 'lefty' to avoid unscrewing the breech piece.
@@nudl3Zz Having the foregrip attached, where should that be located at? Near the trigger? The stock, may be detachable or fixed. Having a telescopic sight, either it could be perpendicular to the trigger or not... Obviously these parts expose more than conceal
The Royal armories facility in Leeds is amazing. Not an exaggeration. Several floors of militaria including Japanese and Chinese stuff. It blew me away, and I've been to other museums like Bovingdon and Duxford.
My dad was in the forces in the 1950's in Cyprus during the conflict there. He never really talked about it except one time when he said that his best friend there was Mr Welrod. He came home changed and became a pacifist and, of all things, a folk singer.
A long time ago I read in a book that Welrods could be disguised as bicycle air pumps so resistance fighters with them could hid them but I never could see how. I can see how that thing could be disguised as one fairly easily. Maybe that book was talking about the sleeve gun instead of the Welrod?
Once you take the magazine out of the Welrod, it looks a lot more like a bicycle pump. The grip and magazine are one part, so it ends up looking basically like this one but with a bit of a lump on it.
I'm really intrigued to know if anyone was ever successfully assassinated with one of these, given how awkward they seem to be to operate. Also seems incredibly reliant on circumstance, as in being 3ft away from your target and alone.
@@jonathanferguson1211 after seeing how it fires, maybe someone made the executive decision that their operatives are more valuable with their fingers still intact
A .32ACP firing solid slugs from a 3" barrel isn't going to be useful at killing a man unless you shoot him directly in the brain at point-blank range. The bullet is neither accurate or powerful enough for anything else. Unfortunately this is the same issue with the Welrod, except that you could presumably reload and finish the guy off a lot quicker if you didn't brain him with the first shot (assuming he hasn't immediately started thrashing around and screaming for his friends). I strongly suspect the DeLisle was much more useful if you actually needed to silently kill somebody in WW2. .45ACP in an 8" barrel hits a lot harder and more accurately than .32ACP in a 3" barrel.
@@harveywallbanger3123 I respectfully disagree. Remember this was a weapon intended for use at close range. So .32ACP has enough energy to be lethal if fired centre mass, or a headshot. Basically hit the heart, lungs, liver and there's a high chance of a critical hit due to hypovolemia, ie blood loss. It's one of those things I've been curious about, so the choice of .32ACP vs the humble .22LR Rest I guess would be down to training. So HVT and bodyguards may know the HVT's been shot, but not from where or by whom, it being a sneaky and easily concealable weapon. Training probably included the art of looking confused/shocked & totally innocent having just slotted your target. The DeLisle was more like a Val, and much less discrete. Also curious whether some other rounds were evaluated. The UK used to use a 9mm(?) 'Rook' round, which was a fairly short rimfire cartridge in Rook guns intended for the quiet, and relatively safe elimination of pests. As a kid, I sometimes found fired rook rounds in our garden. That was originally an orchard before being developed, so presumably the catridges came from pest control there.
I pretty much went to the Imperial War Museum for the sole reason of looking at their Welrod! This scares me more! I think the self inflicted wound possibility seems too great. But I suppose that’s a modern opinion against the ‘at all cost’ mentality of the SOE! Suppose we’re all thinking it, is there any proof of its use? I think you might have told us if there were?
I think we ended up editing out the bit where I said we don't have any evidence of its usage. Sadly, there is none! But with 150+ made I would imagine it must have been carried in anger at least once by someone.
Thanks for the reply! Some SEO stuff (think the correct name is ‘Gubbins’) went through Wallis and Wallis auction house earlier this year. Might be worth a nosey around their previous auction catalogues. Keep up the good work! Excellent video as always.
Knew about it, you forgot to explain that the lanyard is to attach a strong elastic cord which is then attached to your upper arm/shoulder. So the weapon is between the elbow and the wrist when the arm is straight down. Make short strong swing, expanding the elastic and catch to get it. It was primarily intended to be used in a crowd such as a busy street and in the back of the target! Then release and it disappears up the sleeve and walk away.
Not for this gun. The method of carriage you're talking about was for the 'Welwand', not the Sleeve Gun. You can see the former illustrated (complete with elastic strap) in Melton's book 'The Ultimate Spy Book' p.181. It was a much slimmer, lighter design in .25 ACP.
@@jonathanferguson1211, I stand corrected, the info I’m going on is from the danish resistance movement, and only saw a crude drawing and it was back in the early to mid 90s, and it was very hush, hush!
@@MyTv- The original "suspension" for the sleeve gun was a lanyard cord that went up the sleeve and ended in a leather tab that attached to a "braces button" that all men used to have on their trouser waist band. The tab when attached held the sleeve gun between the elbow and wrist. The mode of operation was to cup the hand and use the other hand to slip the tab off the button allowing the gun to drop into the shooting hand. The tab would end up about breast height under the jacket and which was easily reached after the gun had been fired to pull the barrel back into the sleeve. The hardest part is to reconnect the tab back onto the waist band with one hand, however I would imagine that men were more used to performing this task when wearing braces were commonplace. The Danish example is a local variation, and is not the original issue item. I suspect they had knowledge of both the sleeve gun and wand and did some swapping of techniques.
@@MyTv- Oh, interesting - well it's possible that the Sleeve Gun had an elastic lanyard, we just haven't found any evidence of it. The official Sleeve Gun trials documentation and catalogue entry don't mention one. Alternatively what you saw was referring to the Welwand. If you happen to come across the source, please do email us. It would be the only evidence of either gun actually seeing use, whereas the Welrod does have evidence of use.
To me, it almost looks like a contact weapon. You press the end of the gun to your target as you fire. Maybe to be used in a crowd with so sort of diversion. With the sound muffled by the suppressor and confusion caused by the diversion, perhaps the assassin would be able to slip away too. Spy tech has always been an interest of mine. So just my 2 cents worth.
I must say this one was particularly interesting. I'd love to see more videos if there's any further development of this idea in the collection. fabulously morbid little tube.
We have a couple more interesting Welrod variants we could cover, but the Sleeve Gun ends at this Mk. II. There's the separate Welwand but I think the only example (seen in 'The Ultimate Spy Book' p.181) is in the CMSM at Maldon (don't quote me on that though; it's been years since I went and I didn't then understand what I was looking at!).
Jonathon Ferguson is 2022's version of Q from James Bond. Look, they keep this guy squirreled away in some huge British vault full of weapons and every time you see him he has some awesome kit to show off. Look at this thing, it's a silent sleeve gun! 200 of them floating around out there still he says. sleep tight i guess
Neat stuff! Of course, the range (or lack thereof) at which this would be effective raises the question of why not a dagger? Just as quiet and no trouble reloading.
Edged weapons require some skill and a lot of strength to use effectively. Guns like this are essentially guaranteed penetration daggers in terms of the damage they inflict. One guaranteed lethal-depth 'stab', basically.
One of our Curators, Mark Murray Flutter has written an excellent article on the development of the .32 Welrod available here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17416124.2022.2063625
Really interesting video as always Jonathan, I would definitely clumsily shoot myself trying to use this thing if I had to! Going to try and get down to Leeds to visit the museum soon, no excuse as its a quick drive down from Edinburgh.
Nice gun but how do you load/reload this, are you unscrewing this back part and inserting a round or are they "throwaway guns", that you can't reload ?
The RU-vid algorithm god is a fickle one :) The only logic I can ascribe is that guns that have appeared in video games easily take off, little-known stuff like this tends not to.
Probably a pipe dream, too precious an artifact to shoot but. . . I would like to see a “Mad Minute” shoot-off between this model of Welrod and a Brown Bess.
Wow that's a cool video but what a bad trigger design. Jonathon is a great host. I learn a lot about how bad my fave video games are bad at getting firearms right!
The channel “forgotten weapons” did a video with the only remaining Welrod mk1 in existence. I’m pretty sure he had help from a weapon museum that loaned it to him for the video
Loving the close up footage. Really enjoy these videos and when I am in the uk I will be visiting the armouries to see all you have. Thanks for sharing this content. Btw I think you said The Fryth ok, I used to live near there and that was how I heard it said on many occasions.
The Welrod has been a successful assassination gun for many years... with it's cupped muzzle it could be pressed against the target in a crowded room and be clandestinely dispatched, also it could be used in the next room at a short distance from the target and not be heard... it could be used around a dozen times before having to be re-baffled. When the magazine is remove it could be hidden in plain sight in for example a tool box.
Nice bit of kit. There are a lot of fake deacts out there but very well made copies. Originals are rare as hens teeth. It would be interesting to see how quite it really is. As for the concealed weapon it looks very similar to a human cattle killer, i am sure thy trained SOE agents proper training to operate these guns. Different subject out of curiosity Does the Royal armouries hold a Blackard Bomber Spigot mortar.
So... will this be in the "Kill the Fuhrer" mission in Sniper Elite 6 do you think?! Looking at it, I think the only way you could reliably operate it is to pass the end between your first and second finger and clamp it like a cigar, use the first finger to depress the safety (almost like a trigger motion) and thumb to slide the trigger. If it was on elastic you could safely fire it and let go so it slides back up your sleeve before anyone worked out that the target had been shot. After firing it would also make an easily deployed and concealed club. Not that I spend a lot of time thinking about this sort of thing...
You'd think in operation the act of jamming that in someone's ribs would help both keep your fingers clear of the barrel snd help you push the trigger forwards
All the effort of building a gun that's almost movie silencer quiet while hiding in your sleeve, and they don't take the final step of making a trigger that can actually be used.
hi, Jonathan !!! good video ... your scenography is a lot improved but i would like suggest to you to put a red or green or Yellow tablecloth on the desk such that we can see better the details of guns ... bye bye
It's refreshing to have a firearms channel that's not hosted by some gym rat with a bunch of pointy tattoos and a tee shirt three sizes too small. Bravolingus!
It's an acquired taste. Some people are fascinated by the weird and bizarre, others not so much. I'm in the later, I really have to wonder whether the resources and manpower put into such frivolity was worth it. A silenced pocket automatic could probably have done the job just as well and the number of times it was used was probably miniscule. Winston Churchill was a great man, but an amateur soldier, who greatly overestimated the worth of special operations forces and their toys like this.
Fantastic video. ( the only thing that bothers me in videos like this is that second camera angle where the presenter is seen talking off to another direction. I HATE that. It is even done in some other documentaries and videos where the person is also shown in B&W for a few seconds. I wish the producers of such things would stop being so "artistic, and just show the great information from such very good presenters. )
I've heard of this gun before, but it was referred to as a "Welwand". Is that a known nomenclature, or was this just something made up by a couple people who saw/read about it?
Amazing stuff!! The operatives in the SOE were so incredibly brave. I would hate to have had to use that sleeve gun for real.....that muzzle to trigger distance is just insane! One chance....one shot....adrenaline flowing.... heart pounding...... one slip.....and one finger less than you started the day with!! Followed no doubt by death or capture, torture and death. Terrifying. And yet those men and women were all volunteers. If anyone out there has not been to Beaulieu, to the Motor Museum and Abbey, I thoroughly recommend a trip, as there is a small but very well presented exhibition in the grounds, which pays tribute to the SOE operatives who trained in the area and went on active service from there. Included are a few of the weapons they were issued with. Another great video Jonathan; keep em coming!!
The "Wel" in "Welrod", "Welbike", "Welman" etc comes from Welwyn, the town nearest to The Frythe. Which is pronounced more or less as you said, Jonathan.
Another fascinating example of SOE equipment. I thought section 9 or MI9 was based in the V&A during the second wold war were these type of weapon's were developed. Congratulations' on passing 200,000. All due to your excellent presentation.
I wonder why they didn’t add some depressed grips to make the fingers of the user more naturally lock in place in a safe position? Also the trigger could have some sort of sideways sliding safety which would then enable the trigger itself to be designed in a less compromised way.
